System and method for constructing and displaying active virtual reality cyber malls, show rooms, galleries, stores, museums, and objects within

ABSTRACT

A system and method for virtually displaying on-line a gallery, a showroom, a store, a mall or any other room or space and the objects contained in said room or space, wherein the data displayed is comprised of a virtual reality data packet. The system displays still photographs of virtual reality shots and textual materials, and plays virtual reality video clips and audio stories about the room and/or the objects contained therein. Links are associated with each object so that detailed information in graphical, video, audio and/or textual forms that are related to the object and are stored external to the virtual reality data packet can be retrieved on demand from an external database for presentation to the viewer. The system also provides on-line controls that enable the viewer to move around the space, and a feature that enables a viewer to view an object from 360° around the object.

PRIORITY NOTICE

This Non-Provisional U.S. Patent application is a continuation of andclaims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/507,000, filedJul. 21, 2009 (Now U.S. Pat. No. 7,899,719); which is a continuationapplication of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/631,238, filed Aug.2, 2000 (Now U.S. Pat. No. 7,574,381); which claims priority to U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/147,716, filed Aug. 6, 1999. Thedisclosures of all of the foregoing patent documents are incorporatedherein by reference as if fully set forth herein, including Figures,Claims, and Tables.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Contained herein is material that is subject to copyright protection.The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction ofthe patent disclosure by any person as it appears in the Patent andTrademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves allrights to the copyright whatsoever.

The present invention is related to constructing panoramic,virtual-reality Cyber/Electronic (Cyber) show-rooms, galleries, stores,or malls (show-rooms) in electronic media, displaying such cybershown-rooms on-line on remote terminals or client/user computers,allowing the viewers at the computer terminals or client/user-computersto select objects displayed in the cyber virtual-reality show-roomson-line, and retrieve and review remote data related to the selectedobjects.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

In the brick-and-mortar world, showrooms, galleries, and stores are usedto display furnishing, interior accessories, fashion, art, antiques, orother objects. Shopping centers, malls, and main streets are constructedto aggregate a large number of stores. The on-line equivalent of suchcommerce components are constructed with database containing informationfor such objects or stores sorted with nesting categories. The objectsin conventional cyber stores, galleries, and show rooms are representedon the client/user computer screens as index lists of textual orthumbnail entries. The stores in a conventional cybermall arerepresented by a collection of “banner” entries (see FIGS. 1A1, 1A2, 1B,1C1, 1C2, 1C3, 1D1, 1D2, 1E1, 1E2, 1E3, 1E4, 1E5, 1F). Thumbnails aresmall graphical representation of an object, serving as an index and alink to detailed information regarding the object. Banner is a smallgraphical box-like icon with the logo and name of a business entity onthe Web Clicking on a thumbnail usually brings an enlarged photographand/or descriptions of the object from the server database to theclient/user's computer screen. Clicking on a “banner” brings the user tothe home page of the business entity the banner represents.

A typical on-line gallery or store, for example, would show categorytitles of the gallery collections or store items, with some textualentries or graphical thumbnails of selected “featured” exhibits oritems. When a particular “last stop” category on a particularcategorical path is clicked, the items or objects sorted under thatcategory are presented in an index list of textual one-line entries orthumbnail entries. The index list could be very long, and partitionedinto many web pages (each may be several print pages long), accessibleone-web page-at-a-time. Clicking on a textual or thumbnail entry orbrings detailed textual description and an enlarged version of thethumbnail, if available, again, only one-at-a-time (see FIGS. 1A1 and1A2).

Virtual Reality software, such as Apple Computing Quick Time, orMacromedia Flash, on the other hand, has been developed to showscrolling panoramic views of a room or a scene, or to rotate athree-dimensional object to show its 360-degree views. The VirtualReality source data is typically prepared by shooting multiple stillphotographs of a room, a scene, or an object from sequentially varyingangles, and re-compose the still photographs in the correct spatial-timesequence to form a contiguous panoramic view. Video filming can also beused. Viewing the Virtual Reality image at the viewer's computer screenis controlled by the “mouse,” a computer input device (see FIGS. 2A, 2B,and 2C) and the control buttons on the VR “viewing window” on thecomputer screen. The panoramic view of a scene is scrolled across theviewing window. The still shots from sequentially varying angles of a3-D object is “flashed” onto the VR viewing window, producing anillusion of the object rotating in the window, given a large enoughnumber of still shots, and fast enough speed of spatial-timere-composition or “flashing.”

Virtual Reality has not been used in actionable on-line or electroniccommerce environment, except for viewing purposes only, such asdisplaying a property or a house on-line on Real-Estate listing sites asin FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C; or, rotating a 3-D object, such as a car on carsites; or, for other purely entertainment purposes, such as displayingthe content of a museum. In all cases, the Virtual Reality graphicaldata packet is treated as a single data entity with a single “packetaddress,” accessed by clicking a VR or 3D button, and viewed bycontrolling the temporal scanning or rotation using the control buttonson the computer screen in conjunction with the button on the inputdevice, the mouse. From within the Virtual Reality data packet, there isno link to the external world outside the data packet. Therefore, thereis no practical application other than its visual and entertainmentvalue. One cannot do anything with the Virtual Reality presentation ofthe known-art, other than looking at it and enjoying it.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus to construct anddisplay electronic/cyber/on-line showrooms, galleries, stores and mallsto emulate the physical brick and mortar world, in additional to theconventional category and index listing e-commerce construct of the Web.Virtual Reality (VR) shots and/or Video films are made to visuallypresent a show room, gallery, store, or object with more resemblance tothe physical world we live. Each still picture of the VR shots or eachframe of the video film is given a unique frame address. Eachsignificant and unique object in the VR data packet is given a uniqueidentification, indexed and addressed by the area the object occupies ina picture or a frame. Links are associated with each such object, suchthat detailed information (such as graphical, video, audio, or textualdescriptions) related to the objects stored external to the VR datapacket, can be retrieved from the database on demand, when the objectsin the VR images are “selected”/“clicked.”

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A1 illustrates prior art on-line malls, stores, galleries, andshowrooms.

FIG. 1A2 illustrates a prior art AOL Mall having a collection ofdepartment stores represented by banners. Other types of stores aresorted under categories, and accessed through the category listing atthe bottom of the page.

FIG. 1B illustrates a prior art AOL Apparel Store's listing.

FIGS. 1C1, 1C2 and 1C3 illustrate a prior art dEliAs.Com store listedunder the AOL Apparel Stores.

FIGS. 1D1 and 1D2 illustrate prior art Artnet.Com Galleries.

FIG. 1E1 illustrates a prior art Ebay home page.

FIGS. 1E2 through 1E4 illustrate prior art Ebay Galleries.

FIG. 1E5 illustrates a prior art first print page of the first web-pageof a 36 web-page Ebay Furniture listing

FIG. 1F illustrates a prior art Design Toscano Cyber Show Room.

FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C illustrate prior art Virtual Reality: Virtualtouring of a home displayed on the www.bamboo.com web site. There is noother function beyond the visual tour: scrolling the panoramic image tothe left, to the right, and look at it.

FIG. 3A illustrates a central scene and the primary object of a VirtualReality presentation of a museum hall with small buttons at the lowerleft corner to scroll the panoramic scene of the Hall to the left,right, up, down, and zoom-in, and pan-out.

FIG. 3B illustrates nine Virtual Reality frames around the centralobject in the hall, scanning from the left of the object through theobject, to the right of the object, each assigned its unique frameidentity in the present invention.

FIG. 3C illustrates a rectangular area closely surrounding the objectthat is cut, and marked out and identified separately from the rest ofthe picture/frame in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 3D illustrates an example of data stored in memory space externalto the Virtual Reality data packet, linked to the object image fromwithin the Virtual Reality data packet.

FIG. 3E illustrates the object with control buttons at the lower leftcorner resulting from activation of the “Virtual Reality” button in FIG.3D in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 3F illustrates 12 of the standard 36 frames shot from equallyspaced angles 360-degrees around the object in accordance with thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

Referring again to prior art FIG. 2A, clicking on the “Exterior Front”selection on the menu at the left side, initiates the downloading of the“panoramic image of the exterior front view of the house from the serverdatabase, as noted under the “Bamboo.com/Virtual Tour” logo at thecenter of the page.

Referring again to prior art FIG. 2B, when the downloading of thepanoramic image is complete, the exterior scene of the home scrollsacross the “VR window” on the computer screen. The buttons on the lowerleft corner of the VR window are control buttons activated by thecomputer mouse. By moving the cursor to the “left” arrow, and pressingdown on the left mouse button, the image scrolls to the left, bringingthe portion of the panoramic image beyond the right margin of the windowinto view. Pressing on the left button of the mouse while the cursor isresting at the “right” arrow, scrolls the image to the right. The“square” button stops the scrolling, and the “b” button is for clicking“back” to the previous page, which is the home page.

Referring now to prior art FIG. 2C, clicking on the “Master Bedroom”selection on the menu at the left side of the page, causes the“panoramic” image of the master bedroom, to download from thesite-server to the client/user's computer screen. The scrolling andstopping functions are identical to those in FIG. 2B.

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus to construct anddisplay electronic/cyber/on-line showrooms, galleries, stores and mallsto emulate the physical showrooms, galleries, stores, and malls. VirtualReality (VR) shots with audio segments, and/or Video films are made tovisually, audibly, and contiguously present a show room, gallery, store,or object. Each still picture 32A of the VR shots or each frame 30 a, 30b, 30 c, 30 d, 30 e, 30 f, 30 g, 30 h, and 30 i of the video film isgiven a unique frame address within the VR packet address. Thus, eachpicture 32A or each frame 30 a, 30 b, 30 c, 30 d, 30 e, 30 f, 30 g, 30h, and 30 i is identifiable via the address of the packet and theaddress of the frame 30 a, 30 b, 30 c, 30 d, 30 e, 30 f, 30 g, 30 h, and30 i. Each significant and unique object 32 in the VR data packet, isgiven an unique identification, indexed by the area 50 the unique object32 occupies in the frames 30 a, 30 b, 30 c, 30 d, 30 e, 30 f, 30 g, 30h, and 30 i or pictures 32A containing the object. Links are assigned tothat unique object 32, which may appear in multiple frames, such thatdetailed information (such as graphical, VR, video, audio, or textualdescriptions) related to the object 32 addressed by the links, can beretrieved from the database external to the VR data packet, on demand,such as when the object 32 in the proximity frames is “clicked,” fromany of the proximity frames.

Clicking on a particular object 32 in a frame 30 a, 30 b, 30 c, 30 d, 30e, 30 f, 30 g, 30 h, and 30 i, or in any of the proximity frames 30 b,30 c, 30 d, 30 e, 30 f, 30 g, and 30 h in a VR presentation of a showroom, gallery, or store, would select the link/links associated with theparticular object 32 clicked, and store the links in a file on theclient/user computer. Multiple objects can be “clicked,”—i.e., selected,within a VR presentation. When the viewing and the selection process iscompleted, and the collection of “clicked” links is submitted to theserver, by clicking a “submit” button, all data, whether video, audio,VR, graphics, or textual, addressed by the links submitted are broughtfrom the server database to the client/user/user computer with referenceto each selected object.

FIG. 3A shows the central scene about a primary object 32, Venus of Miloof a Virtual Reality presentation of a museum hall. The small buttons 25at the lower left corner scrolls the panoramic scene of the Hall to theleft, right, up, down, and zoom-in and pan-out. A selected set of nineframes 30 a, 30 b, 30 c, 30 d, 30 e, 30 f, 30 g, 30 h, and 30 i aroundthe primary object 32 in this example, are shown in FIG. 3B. The limitof the conventional Virtual Reality of the known-art is here. There isno interaction or linking mechanism from inside the Virtual Realityimages, such as these frames, to data outside of the VR packet. In FIG.3B, there are nine Virtual Reality frames 30 a, 30 b, 30 c, 30 d, 30 e,30 f, 30 g, 30 h, and 30 i around the primary object 32 in the hall,scanning from the left of the object through the object, to the right ofthe object, each assigned its unique frame identity in the presentinvention.

In our implementation, each frame 30 a, 30 b, 30 c, 30 d, 30 e, 30 f, 30g, 30 h, and 30 i in the Virtual Reality data packet is given anidentification. A primary object 32 that appears in multiple proximityframes would be “cut out” from the rest of each frame, or the scene, andgiven a unique identification, and assigned a link, or a collection oflinks, to link to external data storage space that stores dataassociated with the object 32. The primary object 32 appearing onseveral proximity frames, such as from FIG. 3B—frame 30 b through frame30 h, would be identified as one object, and given the same set oflinks.

A rectangular area 50 closely surrounding the object 32 in all of theproximity frames is cut as shown in FIG. 3C, and marked out andseparated from the rest of the frame in order to be assigned a separateand unique identity to the object 32. This is done for frame 30 bthrough frame 30 h in FIG. 3B. The rectangular area 50 in all 7 frames30 b, 30 c, 30 d, 30 e, 30 f, 30 g and 30 h are assigned the sameidentity representing the object 32, and the same links to the memoryspace external to the Virtual Reality Frames, containing the detailedinformation related to the object 32. Clicking within the rectangulararea 50 in all 7 frames 30 b, 30 c, 30 d, 30 e, 30 f, 30 g and 30 hresults in linking to the same set of data.

FIG. 3D shows frames, video, or VR can all be linked and called ondemand. In this example, the enlarged still image 32A in FIG. 3D isfurther linked to another virtual Reality data packet that presents theobject in 360-degree rotation.

Referring now to FIG. 3E, clicking the “Virtual Reality” button 70 inFIG. 3D, brings the “rotating” Virtual Reality data packet of theobject, with the control buttons 25 at the lower left corner. FIG. 3Fshows the 12 of the standard 36 frames 80 a, 80 b, 80 c, 80 d, 80 e, 80f, 80 g, 80 h, 80 i, 80 j, 80 k and 80 l shot from equally spacedangles, 360-degrees around the object. When the number of shots and thespeed of sequentially “flashing in” the still images into the viewingwindow are compatible, human eyes perceive that the object rotates onthe viewing window. A larger number of shots would permit a smoother andslower rotation.

The invention enables practical and actionable commerce applications ofVirtual Reality and Video casting or streaming technologies on the web,for example, in displaying objects in show rooms, galleries, stores, orstores in malls, shopping centers, or on main streets in a “real life”format, in addition to the conventional categorization, search, andlisting presentations in the conventional web stores and galleries. Thecurrent invention enables object images to be linked to additionaltextual, audio, graphical, video, or VR data stored in the databaseoutside of the Virtual Reality or Video data packet. Clicking on theimage of a sofa in such an “active Virtual Reality” show room of thisinvention for example, of an interior furnishing show room, woulddeposit the links associated with the image to a temporary file. Whenthe entire VR or Video presentation is viewed, and the selection ofmultiple interested objects shown in the VR presentation is completed,the collection of links of the objects selected is submitted to theserver from the client/user computer, to retrieve data addressed by thesubmitted links, including but not limited to detailed audio or textualdescriptions, additional graphics or VR presentations, pricinginformation and ordering/or buying submission mechanism, sorted andpresented by each object at command.

The present invention is implemented using software which can be writtenin many programming languages, or implemented with many web-pagegeneration tools. The present invention can be used on a global or localcomputer network, on a personal computer, on viewable storage media suchas a CD ROM, on a wireless telephone, on a wireless personal assistantsuch as a Palm Pilot®, or on any type of wired or wireless device thatenables digitally stored information to be viewed on a display device.Also, information displayed and viewed using the present invention canbe printed, stored to other storage medium, and electronically mailed tothird parties.

Numerous modifications to and alternative embodiments of the presentinvention will be apparent to those skilled to the art in view of theforegoing description. Accordingly, this description is to be construedas illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching those skilled inthe art the best mode of carrying out the invention. Details of thestructure may be varied substantially without departing from the spiritof the invention and the exclusive use of all modifications which comewithin the scope of the appended claims is reserved.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:providing video to contiguously display a virtual reality scenecorresponding to a physical scene including a plurality of firstobjects, wherein the virtual reality scene is built from a plurality ofimages representing different views of the physical scene; enabling auser to navigate within the virtual reality scene and observe thevirtual reality scene from one or more perspectives; receiving from auser a selection of a selectable object within the virtual realityscene, one of the plurality of first objects corresponding to theselectable object; in response to receiving from the user the selectionof the selectable object, activating a link to an actionable commerceapplication comprising a submission mechanism that allows the user toplace an order for the selectable object.
 2. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein the physical scene corresponds to one of: ashow-room, a gallery, a store, a mall, and an auction site.
 3. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each image of theplurality of images has a unique image address.
 4. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the selectable objecthas a unique identification.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim1, wherein at least one image of the plurality of images is a videoframe.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein theselectable object is indexed by an area that the selectable objectoccupies in an image containing the selectable object.
 7. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the user selects theselectable object by indicating the area that the selectable objectoccupies, using a computing device.
 8. The computer-implemented methodof claim 6, wherein the user selects the selectable object by clicking acomputer input device within the area that the selectable objectoccupies.
 9. A computer-implemented method, comprising: providing videoto contiguously display a virtual reality scene corresponding to aphysical scene including a plurality of first objects, wherein thevirtual reality scene is built from a plurality of images representingdifferent views of the physical scene; enabling a user to navigatewithin the virtual reality scene and observe the virtual reality scenefrom one or more perspectives of the different views; displaying aselectable object within the virtual reality scene, the selectableobject corresponding to one object of the first objects; upon receivinga selection of the selectable object, enabling the user to do at leaston of (1) place an order for the selectable object, and (2) obtainadditional information regarding the selectable object.
 10. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising: enabling theuser to observe a view of the selectable object and scroll left, scrollright, scroll up, scroll down, zoom-in, and zoom-out within the view ofthe selectable object.
 11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9,wherein the physical scene corresponds to one of: a show-room, agallery, a store, a mall, and an auction site.
 12. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein each image has a uniqueimage address.
 13. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, whereinthe selectable object has a unique identification.
 14. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the selectable object isindexed by an area that the selectable object occupies in an imagecontaining the selectable object.
 15. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 14, wherein the user selects the selectable object by using acomputer pointing device to indicate the area that the selectable objectoccupies.
 16. A computing system comprising: one or more processors thatare configured to: provide video to contiguously display a virtualreality scene corresponding to a physical scene including a plurality offirst objects, wherein the virtual reality scene is built from aplurality of images representing different views of the physical scene;enable a user to navigate within the virtual reality scene and observethe virtual reality scene from one or more perspectives; receive from auser a selection of a selectable object within the virtual realityscene, one of the plurality of first objects corresponding to theselectable object; in response to receiving from the user the selectionof the selectable object, activate a link to an actionable commerceapplication comprising a submission mechanism that allows the user toplace an order for the selectable object.
 17. The system of claim 16,wherein the physical scene corresponds to one of: a show-room, agallery, a store, a mall, and an auction site.
 18. The system of claim16, wherein each image of the plurality of images has a unique imageaddress.
 19. The system of claim 16, wherein the selectable object has aunique identification.
 20. The system of claim 16, wherein at least oneimage of the plurality of images is a video frame.
 21. The system ofclaim 16, wherein the selectable object is indexed by an area that theselectable object occupies in an image containing the selectable object.22. The system of claim 21, wherein the user selects the selectableobject by indicating the area that the selectable object occupies, usinga computing device.
 23. The system of claim 21, wherein the user selectsthe selectable object by clicking a computer input device within thearea that the selectable object occupies.
 24. A system comprising: aserver; a client terminal; wherein the server communicates with theclient terminal to: provide video to contiguously display a virtualreality scene corresponding to a physical scene including a plurality offirst objects, wherein the virtual reality scene is built from aplurality of images representing different views of the physical scene;enabling a user to navigate within the virtual reality scene and observethe virtual reality scene from one or more perspectives of the differentviews; display a selectable object within the virtual reality scene, theselectable object corresponding to one object of the first objects; uponreceiving a selection of the selectable object, enable the user to do atleast one of (1) place an order for the selectable object, and (2)obtain additional information regarding the selectable object.
 25. Thesystem of claim 24, further comprising: enabling the user to observe aview of the selectable object and scroll left, scroll right, scroll up,scroll down, zoom-in, and zoom-out within the view of the selectableobject.
 26. The system of claim 24, wherein the physical scenecorresponds to one of: a show-room, a gallery, a store, a mall, and anauction site.
 27. The system of claim 24, wherein each image has aunique image address.
 28. The system of claim 24, wherein the selectableobject has a unique identification.
 29. The system of claim 24, whereinthe selectable object is indexed by an area that the selectable objectoccupies in an image containing the selectable object.
 30. The system ofclaim 29, wherein the user selects the selectable object by using acomputer pointing device to indicate the area that the selectable objectoccupies.